These two terms get used loosely, so it's worth being precise about what each one actually means before deciding what a building needs.
Planned maintenance
Planned maintenance is scheduled work, servicing and inspections carried out on a set cycle regardless of whether anything appears to be wrong. The value isn't in fixing something broken, it's in catching wear before it fails, and having a documented history of what's been checked and when, which matters for insurance, lease obligations and compliance.
Reactive maintenance
Reactive maintenance is repair work carried out in response to something that has already failed, a leak, a heating breakdown, a fault stopping the building operating normally. Response speed matters most here, along with fixing the actual cause rather than a temporary patch that fails again in a few weeks.
Why most buildings need both
No maintenance schedule catches everything, and even a well-maintained building has occasional failures. The buildings that cost the least to run over time are the ones with a solid planned maintenance schedule and a reliable reactive service behind it for when something still goes wrong, not one or the other.
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About the author
Written by JLS Building & Property Development Ltd, a family-run building contractor covering Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire. FMB member and SafeContractor approved. More about us. This guide is general information, not professional or legal advice for your specific project.